Calculations From the Bible: Why a Computer Scientist Believes the Bible Is True

By Robert Reagan

CALCULATIONS FROM THE BIBLE is the story of Robert Reagan's efforts to reconcile his faith with his understanding of science and history.

In this book, the author relies on a mastery of statistics and probability theory to test various explanations for unusual occurrences, historical anomalies, scientific and archaeological evidence, as well as biblical prophecies and contradictions.

Throughout this book's analysis of the probabilities of biblical explanations being true, the underlying question remains the same: can we rely on the Bible?

Come with Robert Reagan on this journey and decide for yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Reagan
• Release date: Mar 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218148928

Robert Reagan

Robert Reagan holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Computer Science and has worked as a software engineer for his entire career. He is the author of Reagan's Algorithm, which has been used in the financial industry for fraud detection.

Book preview

Prologue: Much Ado About Me

I grew up in a Christian family, and became a Christian at the age of seven. My mother took my two sisters and me to church each Sunday morning and night, as well as every Wednesday night service. I was in church all my life. Since I was exposed to Christian teachings as far back as I can remember, it was only natural for me to embrace Christian beliefs. Not only did I believe this way, but most people I knew did too.

It never occurred to me to question what I was being told. It was the reality I knew. You must understand, there wasn’t an internet available to me when I was growing up. People nowadays can find any worldview belief and system they want, many of which contradict my Christian upbringing. But my experience in my youth was a world in which the majority of people were Christian believers.

After graduating high school, I took a full-time job, working my way through college. I became acquainted with two of my co-workers, with whom I also attended college classes at night. One was named Nabil, and was from Kuwait; the other was named Bahman, and was from Lebanon. Both of these men were of the Muslim faith, and were good friends.

While comparing my beliefs to theirs, it occurred to me that they were just as wedded to their beliefs as I was, and were just as adamant in their convictions that theirs was the true faith. Their convictions were just as strong as mine for the same reason: We were all brought up in cultures that fostered these beliefs unquestioningly. In fact, if I had been born into one of their families, then most probably I would have been raised in the Muslim faith and would have believed just as they did. So, the fact that I’m a Christian instead of a Muslim could certainly be viewed as owing to the circumstances of my birth.

While pondering this state of affairs, it occurred to me that, of these two diametrically opposed beliefs, at least one must be wrong. Perhaps both. Which raised the obvious question in my mind: how could I know if my faith in Christianity has any rational basis, or if it is just – as we say in the South – a product of my raisin’? If it turns out I’m wrong, I’d much rather find out now while there’s still time to order my life around a proper belief system. After all, if you’re embracing a way of life that’s not true, wouldn’t you want to know?

I don’t think, when these first questions entered my mind, that I was really thinking much about whether parts of the Bible were literally interpreted or figuratively interpreted. I just had this uneasy sense that everybody thinks that their belief is the true path. We can’t all be right. Somebody’s wrong. And I was just wondering, how can you know?

There’s a lot of things about my understanding of the Bible that, I think, are open to interpretation. I knew – growing up in the church – that if I ever did ask questions about it, I would just be criticized for having little faith rather than entertain my thoughts as legitimate questions and explore them. Buck up. Suck it up, buttercup. No questions. It is against this backdrop that I want to make sure that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren have to help them counter the worldview narrative, and provide an anchor for their Christian belief.

Because I have a lifetime of thinking and experience, when I hear something it automatically goes through a filter. I’ll give you an example: we hadn’t been in the church long when one day I was walking through the halls, exploring an area of the church I’d never been in before, back in the children’s wing. Someone had painted artwork and sayings on the walls related to the six days of creation. And, there’s a statement summing up the six days of creation that stated, after each day, God said, ‘It is good.’

Well, I saw that and thought, That’s not right. God created the firmament on the second day, and that is one day God did not say – conspicuously – it is good or it is very good. So, that’s wrong. I understand what they’re doing, but it’s technically incorrect. I wanted to take my red pen and mark it out, with a note saying, ‘except for the second day.’

What’s funny is that many times people think they’re clever coming up with these contradictions, as if thousands of years of theological scrutiny never before found these supposed issues. As if we are just now illuminated and educated enough to understand the Bible’s failings. What may be worse is that we Christians often don’t have the answers because we are too busy with Netflix binging or analyzing the latest MCU movie to figure out what the details of our supposed faith are.

No, don’t tell me that you rely on faith when you aren’t even willing to see what your faith has to say. My hope and prayer is that my grandchildren, and maybe even my farther descendants, will be able to garner some key insights from these pages when they wonder about their heritage. Because, though the subject of this book is the Bible, in a particular sense it is also my story.

Introduction

A recent Gallup poll[¹] indicates that, during the past forty years, the number of Americans who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word, has shrunk from about forty percent (40%) to less than one-in-four (24%). At the same time, the number who believe the Bible is a book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man has risen to more than one-in-four (26%).

This is the first time in history that the number of Americans who are Bible skeptics has surpassed the number of Americans who believe the Bible is a true and trustworthy document. The percentage of skeptics is much higher among young adults, suggesting that this trend will accelerate in the